The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-05-05
There is only one thing have against

Tue NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF IHlS country, anu
that is, they are too respectable We
gather into our schools the children of the
refined, and the cultured, and the educat-
ed; but alas for the reatmultidude of the
children of the abandoned and
the losti A few of them are gathered
into our Sabbath-schools, what about the
70,00J destitute children of New Y DIRK, and
the score of thousands of destitute chill
dren Of Brooklyn, around whom are
thrown no benign, and Heavenly, and
Christian influencess 1t is tremendous
question, what is to become of the desti-
tute childrensof these citiess we must
either act on them or they will act on US.
We must either Christianize them or they
will heathenize US. 1t is question not
more for the Christian than for the phil
osopher and states man.
Oh! If we could have all these suffering
little ones gathered together, what scene
of hunger, and Indebtedness, and rags,
and sin, and trouble, and darkness!
If we could see those lite feet on
the broad road to death, which, through
Christian charity, ought to be press
ing the narrow path of life; if we
could hear those voices in blasphemy,
which ought to be singing the praise of
God; if we could see those little hearts,
which at that age ought not to be soiled
with one unclean thought, becoming the
sewers for every abomination; il we
could see these suffering little ones sacri-
feed on the altar of every Ubiquitous pas
sion, and baptized with fire from the lava
of the pit, we would recoil, crying out:
"Avaunt, thou dream of hellp
They are not always going to be chill
dren. They are coming up to be the men
and women of this country. That spark
of iniquity that might now be put out
with one drop of the water of life Will be-
come the conflagration of every green
thing that God ever planted in the SOUL
That which ought to have been a temple
of the Holy Ghost will become a SCARED
and blistered ruin-every fight quenched
and every altar in the dust. That petty
thief, who slips into your stores and
takes yard of your cloth from your
counter, will become the highwayman of
the forest, or the burglar at midnight,
picking the lock of your money-safe and
blowing up your store to hide the vilainy.
great army, with staggering step, and
bloodshot eye and drunken boot. they are
coming on-gathering recruits from every
grog- shop and den of infamy in the land,
to take the ballot-box and hurrah at the
elections. ~
The hard-knuckled fist of ruffianism will
have more power than thu gentle hand of
intelligence and sobrlety. Men, bloated,
and with the signature of SIN burned in
from the top of the forehead to the bottom
OF the chin, will look honest men out of
countenance. Moral corpses, which ought
to be burie I a hundred feet deep to keep
them from poisoning the air, will rot in
the face of the sun at monday. Industry,
in her plain frock, will be unap-
preciated, while thousands of men
will wander around In idleness, with their
hands on their hips, saying: 1.-THE world
owes US living" o, what tremendous
power there is in iniquity when unedu
Gated, and unrestrained, and unblanched
it goes on concentrating. and deepening
and widening, and gathering momentum,
until it swings ahead with very triumph
OF desolation, drowning like surges,
scorching like flames, crushing like rocks
What are you going to do with this
abandoned population of the streets!
Will you gather them in your churchess
1t Is not the will of your Heavenly Father
that one of these little ones should perish.
Ii you have ten respectable children in
your class, gather in ten that are not re-
spectacle. Ii in your Bible class there
be twenty young men who have
come from Christian homes and ele-
CANT surroundings, let those twenty young
men go out and gather in twenty more of
the young men of the city who are lost to
God and lost to society. This outside pop
ulation, unless educated and restrained,
will work error in ages that are to come.
Another characteristic of live church
is one with appropriate architecture In
the far West and amid destitute popula-
tions log church is very appropriate
the people living in log houses But in
communities where people live in COM
Portable abodes, church uncommodious
or lacking in beauty is moral nuisance.
Because Christ was born in manager is no
reason why we should worship him in a
barn.
Let the churches of Jesus Christ be not
only comfortable, but ornate. Years ago
we resolved to have a comfortable church.
We resolved that it should be amphitheat-
rical in shape. The prominent architects
of the country, after figuring on the mat
ter good while, said that such a church
would not be -churchly, and they would
nave nothing to do with the enterprise.
But after awhile we found an architect
winning W flSh MS TeputdtlOn. he put up
for us the first tabernacle in amphitheat-
rical style. We liked it. All who came
liked it. This building followed in the
same style. We believe it is appropriate
and adapted.
An angular church will have an angular
theology. The Church Of Jesus Chris st
ought to be great family circle, the pull
pit only the fireplace around which they
are gathered in sweet and domestic COM
munlon. But when our first tabernacle
went up, . the caricature and the scott
ingl They said:
sits hippodromeI It's holy circusl
It's Talmage's theater.n
But the Lord came down with power
upon that old building, and made it the
gate OF Heaven to great many And this
building followed. That we were right In
persisting in the style of architecture is
proved by the fact that there sixty or sew
enty churches in the United States In the
same style. Indeed. our tabernacle has
revolutionized church architecture in this
country. A live church must have a COM
modious, comfortable, an adapted build
ing.
How amiable are thy tabernacles, o Lord of
Hosts. would rather be doorkeeper in the
house OF my Goldman to dwell in the tents of